


Longer Ways to Go

by carolinecrane



Series: down is where we came from [46]
Category: Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-04
Updated: 2011-02-04
Packaged: 2017-10-15 09:59:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/159656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carolinecrane/pseuds/carolinecrane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All good things must come to an end.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Longer Ways to Go

It turns out Hudson’s a _total_ slut. Not that Puck’s judging; if anything, he’s grateful -- grateful and kind of impressed -- because it means he gets to kiss his mom and sister goodbye and promise to call more often and then go downstairs with Kurt to spend their last night in Ohio making Kurt moan his name until he’s too far gone to form actual words anymore.

He has half a mind to keep Kurt up all night -- in all senses of the word -- but they have to be at the airport pretty early, and that means meeting Hudson at a truly obscene hour so he can drive them all the way to Dayton in time to catch their flight home.

So he doesn’t keep Kurt awake all night, but he does make sure Kurt’s got some new memories of his old room to take home to L.A. with him. It doesn’t make up for the fact that they never hooked up back in high school, but he’s still the only guy who’s ever fucked Kurt in his dad’s house, and he plans for it to stay that way.

Once they’re showered and dressed and Puck’s managed to drag Kurt’s heavy fucking suitcase up the stairs without pulling anything he might need later, they say goodbye to Carole and Puck pretends he doesn’t notice how watery her eyes are when she grabs them both and hugs them until they can’t breathe. It’s kind of weird, considering his own mom didn’t even get weepy when she said goodbye to him, but he figures Mrs. H has been through a lot since they’ve been back, so he doesn’t say anything.

Instead he lifts Kurt’s suitcase and his own bag into the trunk of the loaner they’ve been driving around for the past week, then he starts the engine and waits while Kurt says one last goodbye to Carole on the front steps. A minute later he’s sliding into the passenger seat and reaching for his seat belt, and when Puck glances over at him he flashes one of those painful-looking smiles that he never means.

Puck doesn’t ask; instead he lets Kurt brood about it all the way to the shop, but when they pull into the lot he shuts off the engine and turns in the driver’s seat to look at him. “You okay?”

For a second Kurt just looks back, then he nods and smiles for real, sort of sad around the edges, but at least he means this one. “I just didn’t expect to be sad about leaving.”

Puck doesn’t laugh, even though he kind of wants to, because he knows how much time Kurt spends trying to convince himself there’s nothing in Lima that means a damn thing to him. And Puck knows they’re never coming back here to stay -- he doesn’t even want to, because he likes their life in L.A. just fine -- but they’ve spent more time in Lima than they have anywhere else, and even once he left Puck never tried to pretend Lima didn't exist.

Puck never wanted to forget his past the way Kurt tried to, and he’s glad, because if he had he might have let Kurt pretend he didn’t recognize Puck that first night, might have let him walk right on by and then they’d just be two guys who used to know each other, and he’d never know what he’s been missing out on all these years. The thought makes it hard to breathe for a second, and he reaches out before he even knows he’s thinking about it and catches Kurt’s hand.

His thumb traces the ring on Kurt’s finger for a second before he lifts their hands and presses a kiss to the center of Kurt’s palm. When Kurt tries to bite back a tiny gasp, Puck smiles and goes back to twisting his engagement ring around his finger. “We’ll be back before you know it.”

For a second Kurt looks a little panicked, but before Puck can ask what the problem is, he takes a deep breath and leans across the console to press their lips together. Then he pulls back to rest his free hand on Puck’s cheek, just looking for a second before he says, “I love you.”

“I love you, too, babe,” Puck answers, grinning when Kurt laughs and pulls away to climb out of the car.

Puck follows him into the shop, past the cramped waiting area and around a long counter to a door he assumes leads to Burt’s office. It’s empty when they get there, so Kurt catches his hand and pulls him toward a door in the other wall, and when he pushes it open Puck sees that it leads into the garage itself.

Burt’s there, wearing a pair of grease-stained coveralls and leaning over the open hood of Will’s Camaro. Finn’s standing next to him, hands in his pockets and sort of rocking on his heels, like Burt’s grading him and he forgot to study. He looks over at them when they walk in, flushing and lifting a hand in a totally dumb little wave.

“Hey, guys.”

Burt looks up at the sound of Finn’s voice, and when he looks at Kurt Puck feels Kurt’s hand squeeze his hard for a second. So he squeezes right back, because he’s never had a dad to give a damn whether or not he’s around, but he’s spent enough time around Kurt and his dad by now to know that if the waterworks are going to start, this is the moment.

Sure enough, when he glances over at Kurt his eyes are all watery, just like Mrs. H when she said goodbye. And it’s not like he’s never seen Kurt cry before; hell, he got all teary when Puck proposed that last time, and he was _happy_ about that. That doesn’t stop Puck from wanting to put his arms around Kurt and drag him close, but he settles for pressing a kiss to the side of his head and letting go of his hand.

When he nods at Hudson, Finn blushes again and follows Puck out of the garage, leaving Kurt to say whatever he needs to say to his dad in private. He pulls his phone out when they get back to the waiting room, just to make sure he hasn’t gotten a text alert from the airline telling them their flight’s been delayed. When he looks up again Finn’s staring in the direction of the garage, still looking kind of twitchy and Puck doesn’t bother trying not to roll his eyes.

“Dude, what’s your problem?”

“What?” Finn says, then he looks at Puck and blushes again. “Nothing.”

“Right,” Puck says, but he doesn’t argue, because if Hudson wants to be a total freak, it’s none of Puck’s business. He shoves his phone back in his pocket and looks up again, but Finn hasn’t gone back to staring at the garage like there’s a bomb in there somewhere. He’s still looking at Puck, and before Puck can scowl and say, “What?” Finn’s talking again.

“Are you ever sorry you left Lima?”

It’s a weird question, but it’s not like Puck’s never thought about it before, so he just shrugs. “Not really. I wouldn’t have hooked up with Kurt if I hadn’t bailed, right?”

“I thought you said that was God’s plan or whatever.”

“Yeah, so when God said, ‘move to L.A.’, that’s what I did.” Puck frowns at him like he’s a moron, because he’s known Hudson almost his entire life, and he _is_ a moron.

“So, what, He like came to you in a dream and told you to move or something?” Finn asks, and now he’s kind of laughing, which would have earned him a punch in the mouth a couple years ago. But Puck’s not that guy anymore -- not unless somebody’s putting their hands on Kurt without permission, anyway -- so instead he just rolls his eyes again.

“I’m not your rabbi, dude. If you want to know how it works, go to church once in awhile.”

Finn doesn’t ask how often Puck actually makes it to temple when he’s in L.A., not that it makes a difference. Puck knows how it works, and it’s not his fault Mrs. H didn’t drag her kid to church often enough to clue him in.

“Sorry,” Finn says, and he actually looks like he means it, so Puck shrugs and lets it go. “It’s just...sometimes I think there’s something wrong with me.”

Puck snorts a laugh at that, because there’s something wrong with Hudson, all right. There are a lot of things wrong with Hudson, so many that he’s not even sure where to start. “Are you looking for an argument here?”

“Fuck you,” Finn says, but there’s no heat behind it. “I mean I don’t really _want_ to leave, you know? Back in high school, yeah, I figured getting out of Lima was the first step to having a life. But now...I don’t know what the hell I want to do with the rest of my life, but I wouldn’t mind doing it here.”

“I thought you were going to be a teacher like Schue.”

Finn shrugs and looks away, and Puck doesn’t actually _know_ or anything, because he bailed on the entire concept of college a long time ago, but if Finn’s starting to get cold feet this close to graduation, it seems like kind of a big deal.

“I guess,” Finn says, staring at the garage door again and Puck follows his gaze just in time to watch it swing open. Sure enough, when Kurt and his dad walk through Kurt’s eyes are all red and puffy, but he gives Puck a little smile, so Puck figures he’s not going to bawl all the way back to L.A., at least.

“Puck,” Burt says, gripping Puck’s hand to shake it, “it was nice to see you, son. I told Kurt what I’ll tell you: you boys don’t be strangers, okay? I know life in California is a little more exciting than it is back home, but you’re welcome any time.”

“I don’t know,” Puck says as he slides an arm around Kurt’s shoulders, “Ohio’s not so bad.”

~

Kurt’s riding shotgun, and he’s still busy pretending he isn’t crying about leaving his dad behind when they get into the car, so he doesn’t notice the way Hudson hesitates when he slides behind the wheel. Puck notices; he notices the slow, deliberate movements, notices the way he tenses when he adjusts his position on the seat. Puck notices all right, and he knows exactly what the problem is. A slow grin spreads across his face, and when Finn glances in the rear view mirror Puck raises an eyebrow at him.

“What?”

“Dude. I didn’t think you had it in you.”

Kurt looks up at that, eyes still rimmed with red, but he’s frowning over his shoulder at Puck. “What are you talking about?”

“Hudson here got his cherry popped last night,” Puck says, and when Finn turns bright red and doesn’t deny it, Puck knows he’s right.

Kurt wrinkles his nose like he can smell it on Finn all of a sudden, then his eyes narrow, and Puck watches his fingers twitch in mid-air before he changes his mind about touching Finn and crosses his arms over his chest instead. “Isn’t that the shirt Will was wearing at dinner?”

Finn looks down at his chest, like he can’t remember what he’s wearing or something, then he looks back up at the road. “Yeah.”

Puck snorts a laugh that gets him a warning look from Kurt, but he doesn’t look like he means it all that much. And hey, if this is the last chance he gets to point out what a total loser Hudson is until next year sometime, there’s no way he’s passing it up.

“What are you, a chick now? Wait, don’t tell me: you’re wearing his shirt because it smells like him.”

“Shut up,” Finn says, but he doesn’t deny that, either. “I was trying not to wake him up, okay? I just grabbed the wrong shirt.”

‘Well if you weren’t such a whore you would have known where your clothes were when you woke up.”

“Really? You want to go there with Kurt sitting right here?”

“Enough,” Kurt interrupts, cheeks flushed and Puck doesn’t really care what or who Finn dredges up from his past, but he figures Kurt must, because he holds up a hand and makes a face like he’s praying for patience. Which he definitely isn’t, that much at least Puck knows for sure.

“Babe, what’s the big...”

“Noah, leave him alone,” Kurt says, sighing and turning to face the road and Puck frowns at the back of his head when Finn laughs.

“Thanks, bro.”

“Please," Kurt says, waving a dismissive hand in Finn’s direction. “I just don’t want to spend the entire plane ride home trying to purge my mind of disturbing images of your sex life.”

This time Puck laughs, and when he catches sight of Kurt’s profile he sees the little smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. That and the fact that Finn looks like he’s about to burst into flames makes Puck grin even harder.

“Seriously, though, is Schue a total freak between the sheets or what?”

“Oh my God,” Kurt says, which, whatever, like he even believes in God.

“Come on, babe, don’t tell me you never wondered,” Puck says, and when Kurt turns as red as Finn, Puck knows he has.

“Why is everybody I know thinking about what my boyfriend’s like in bed?” Finn says, and he sounds so pathetic that Puck almost feels sorry for him.

Puck opens his mouth to point out that Schue’s kind of hot, for a total dork, and anyway he already explained about the sweater vests. But before he gets a chance Kurt’s talking again, mouth curved up in that same little smirk that always makes Puck want to push him down on the nearest flat surface and feel Kurt’s smile against his skin.

“It’s the classic authority figure fantasy,” Kurt says with a little shrug, but he’s still blushing, so Puck knows he’s not as calm as he thinks he’s coming off. “Schue was the hottest teacher in our school. Of course he’d be the object of a certain amount of...curiosity.”

“He means wet dreams,” Puck adds from the back seat, mostly because he knows Kurt can’t reach him with his seat belt on.

“Yeah, well, he’s not our teacher anymore. Now he’s just...Will.”

Finn's voice goes kind of soft on Schue’s name, dreamy and pathetic and Puck rolls his eyes at the back of Finn’s head, because yeah, going gay has finally turned him into a total chick. A total chick who’s offended by the fact that other people might have pictured Schue naked at some point, apparently, when the truth is he should be taking it as a compliment.

He doesn’t point that out, though, because it’s a long flight back to L.A. and the last thing he needs is for Kurt to bitch at him the entire way home about traumatizing his brother or whatever. Kurt doesn’t look like he’s thinking about crying anymore, though, and Puck figures that’s worth a little bitching.

~

When they get to the airport Hudson pulls up outside their terminal and gets out of the car, hands in his pockets and still kind of red-faced, but Puck can’t tell if he’s still embarrassed about turning out to be such a giant slut, or if he feels weird about saying goodbye. Kurt’s looking a little fidgety too, so Puck just rolls his eyes at both of them and heads for the trunk to drag Kurt’s huge fucking suitcase out.

By the time he hands it over to the curbside check-in guy Finn’s patting Kurt awkwardly on the shoulder, and Kurt’s actually _letting_ him, which Puck figures is probably a first for them. And yeah, okay, they weren’t born family or anything, but it’s been _years_ since that whole gay crush business, and Puck doesn’t really get why they can’t just get over it already.

Not that he’s planning to say that to Kurt or anything.

Instead he slings his own bag over his shoulder and stops next to Kurt. “Thanks for the lift, dude.”

“No problem,” Finn answers, hands back in his pockets and kind of rocking backwards like he’s nervous or something. Which is pretty fucking stupid, considering how long they’ve known each other, but Puck doesn’t punch him or anything to remind him of who he’s talking to.

“Don’t forget, you’re best man,” Puck says instead. “Don’t be a slacker, dude.”

“What does the best man do, exactly?” Finn asks, and that’s a good question, so Puck shrugs and looks at Kurt. It gets him a huge, drama queen sigh, but when Kurt’s done rolling his eyes at both of them he answers.

“Thankfully you're not in charge of much. Getting Noah to the ceremony on time and making sure the ushers don’t wander off, mostly. You’re in charge of making sure the rings don’t get lost. And I think you’re responsible for the music at the reception.”

“And the bachelor party,” Puck says, and when Kurt raises an eyebrow at him Puck frowns. “What, babe? The bachelor party’s, like, his most important job. I figured since it’s two dudes getting married we could just have one big party.”

“No strippers,” Kurt says, turning to glare at Finn this time, and Puck has to work hard not to laugh at the look on Finn’s face.

“No strippers. Got it.”

Kurt glares at him for another second, then he kind of sniffs and crosses his arms over his chest. “Other than that, you don’t have to do much besides show up.”

“Oh. I guess I can handle that.”

Puck’s not all that sure he can, especially if he’s still got his head up his ass about Schue in a year. And Puck’s seen the dopey way they look at each other every time they’re in the same room, so his money’s on Finn not getting over it any time soon. But music’s the one thing Schue’s pretty good at, so as long as Finn gets his help, he’ll probably do okay with that part, at least.

He holds out his hand for Finn to shake, thinks about pulling him close and planting a wet kiss on his cheek, just to freak him out, but Kurt’s already kind of jumpy, so he doesn’t. Instead he grins and lets Kurt say one last goodbye, then he slides an arm around Kurt’s shoulders and steers him into the terminal.

Once they’re checked in and through security Kurt drags him into the nearest coffee shop, and Puck pulls out his cell phone while Kurt orders his triple whatever with extra foam. He opens a new text and scrolls through his contacts until he finds Finn’s number, then he types a short message:

 _dude 2 wrds: std screen. get 1 & ditch the condoms. u can thank me l8r._

“Who are you texting?” Kurt asks, one eyebrow arched over the rim of his giant fucking coffee cup.

“Just telling your brother thanks again for the ride,” Puck says, then he shoves his phone in his pocket and slides his arm around Kurt’s shoulders again to drag him toward their gate.

~

The subject of the wedding doesn’t come up again until they board the plane. Puck waits until they’re in the air before he pushes the armrest up so he can slide closer to Kurt. And it’s not like _he_ cares if the flight attendant comes around and sees them making out, but it bothers Kurt, so he keeps his hands to himself until they take off. As soon as they’re off the ground Puck reaches over and catches his left hand, fingers sliding together until their rings are pressed up against each other.

“I guess we're gonna have to get wedding bands too, huh?”

“We don’t _have_ to,” Kurt answers. He’s looking down at their hands, watching Puck’s thumb twisting Kurt’s ring until the diamonds are right in the center of his finger. “It’s not like we really have to stand on tradition here. We could just use these.”

“Nothing wrong with a little tradition,” Puck says, smiling when Kurt laughs. And he’s already said he’d be happy with a quick trip to the J.P., but now that his mom’s involved, he figures they’re going have to deal with _some_ tradition. “You know my mom’s not going to let us get away without at least some of the usual stuff. I think we’re gonna have to step on the glass at least.”

He feels the way Kurt’s hand tenses in his, but he pretends he doesn’t notice. Instead he runs his thumb along Kurt’s knuckles until his fingers relax again, then he lifts their hands and plants a kiss right above Kurt’s ring.

“My Nana’s rabbi might be down with overseeing the ceremony; he’s a pretty cool guy. And we should probably get a minister in too, for Carole.”

“Since when do you care about Christian traditions?” Kurt asks, and yeah, he’s frowning all right. He tugs his hand out of Puck’s grip to turn toward him, kind of backing away in the process and that wasn’t exactly part of the plan.

“Parts of it are okay,” Puck says, shrugging against the seat, but he doesn’t reach for Kurt again. “I liked the ‘whatever God has joined together, let no man put asunder’ part the dude who did your dad’s wedding snuck in at the end.”

“God didn’t bring us together,” Kurt snaps, rolling his eyes and Puck’s not sure if it’s about God in general, or Puck reminding him about the minister sneaking God into his dad's wedding ceremony after all. “Brittany brought us together.”

“Po-tay-to, po-tah-to, babe. It’s divine intervention no matter what you call it.”

Kurt’s mouth opens like he’s planning to argue, maybe tell Puck just how stupid he’s being. Then his jaw snaps shut again, and instead of freezing Puck out completely he kind of...smiles.

“Did you just...sort of quote musical theater at me?”

“I have no clue. It’s something my Nana always says. I think it’s from some old song she likes to sing when she’s getting her groove on in the kitchen.”

Kurt’s grinning at him now, and when he leans in and plants a kiss square on Puck’s mouth, he figures the God portion of the conversation is tabled for now. “I love you.”

“I love you too, babe,” Puck says, then he grins and slides a hand into Kurt’s hair to pull him close again. “Want me to show you how much?”

Which is how he convinces Kurt to join the Mile High club on the way back to L.A., and now that he knows all it took was a line from one of his Nana’s favorite songs, he’s going to call her for a list as soon as they get home.


End file.
